


Mission Status: Kara-OK!

by misura



Category: Prisoner of the Ant People - R.A. Montgomery
Genre: Gen, Karaoke, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27328864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: It's time for a (mandatory) karaoke night! Are you up for the challenge?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Mission Status: Kara-OK!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bobcatmoran](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobcatmoran/gifts).



You have to admit, at the start of the evening you had your doubts about the amount of fun you might have playing an ancient Earth game called 'karaoke'. Even now, you're still not entirely clear about the rules.

"Rules, schmules - we're here to have some fun!" Flppto declares. He's just finished giving a very spirited rendition of the Martian classic 'Think of Me Thinking of You', which is all about how much fun it is to be able to read the minds of other beings.

Naturally, as a human, you will never be able to discover that for yourself - unless some of Zondo Quest Group's Telepathy division achieves an unexpected breakthrough, of course. Having been responsible for quite a number of scientific breakthroughs yourself, you know it's not impossible.

Still, tonight you're still a simple human, incapable of reading anyone's mind. Deep down inside, you're not sure if you would even want to be able to tell what other people are thinking.

Not that you need a telepathic helmet or the like to know what's on the mind of your other team member.

"This is an intolerable waste of our time!" Rendoxoll declares, clacking loudly.

"We're here under orders," you remind it. This is true. One of the many, many Zondo Quest Group's research teams is studying ways to make other research teams more productive. They have recently discovered that a bit of relaxation every now and then means people will be happier, and that happier people work harder, and so you and your team are currently enjoying a mandatory evening off work.

On the one hand, you admit that it's nice to take a break.

On the other hand, you can't really forget that even now, the Evil Power Master may be disintegrating entire planets, or at least working on his next nefarious plan. That makes it kind of hard to relax, even though Flppto doesn't seem to have any trouble.

"Your turn next, Earthling! I'm looking forwards to hearing some Earth classics. What's it going to be?"

You know what while your intelligence is exceptional, you have no talent for singing. You should probably pick something easy to sing.

Easy songs aren't much fun, though. You decide that you'd rather sing something a little more challenging, something like -

"Aw yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Flppto yells, enthusiastically waving his arms and almost hitting Rendoxoll. You suspect that might be on purpose, though it's also true the robot waiters have been bringing all of you a lot of drinks - soy milk and real apple juice for you, Martian ginger root beer for Flppto and some strange-looking liquid for Rendoxoll. (You wonder if you're brave enough to ask for a taste, but you tell yourself it's probably not suitable for human consumption anyway.)

"I haven't actually decided yet," you tell Flppto.

Flppto makes some squishy sounds. He might be trying to boost your confidence or making fun of you for feeling a little nervous: not speaking Minervian, you will never know.

"Please hurry," Rendoxoll begs. "I do not know how much more of this I can take."

Flppto makes more squishy sounds. They seem different from the ones he made before, so those were probably meant to be positive and/or encouraging, you decide, unlike these ones, which are almost certainly making fun of Rendoxoll and his opinions on 'air-breathing life-forms and their idea of entertainment'.

"You're up after me, you know," you say to Rendoxoll, unable to resist.

"Ridiculous!" Rendoxoll flashes an angry orange. "Planet F32 does not even have music!"

Be that as it may be, your orders were pretty clear. You don't think Rendoxoll will be able to get away with doing nothing except sitting there. Still, that's not your problem.

Deciding which song you want to sing is.

"Do what I did," Flppto suggests, drinking from a fresh bottle of Martian ginger root beer. "Let the computer pick one at random."

You know Martians hate making choices. It's why there's only one kind of drink they enjoy, and why all their meals come in 'surprise boxes', to prevent them from having to decide what to have for lunch or dinner. You can't imagine living your life that way. Luckily, Martians accept that not all species are like them, and they respect other people's ways of choice-filled life.

Being a member of the Zondo Quest Group, Flppto is better at making choices than most Martians. For example, he chose to wear a blue shirt today. He has a green one, too, though now that you think about it, you remember he spilled something on it two months ago, and you haven't seen him wear it since.

"I can make a decision for myself," you declare, returning your mind to the choice at hand.

"I do not doubt it, but perhaps you could be quicker about it?" Rendoxoll says. "It has been nearly four minutes and twenty-six seconds already since Flppto finished his song."

You're pretty sure that's not true, but there seems little point in arguing. "Fine. Fine. Don't rush me," you say, taking another look at the wide selection of songs offered by the karaoke computer.

Maybe telling the computer to pick one at random isn't such a bad idea after all. After all, it's not as if the computer would pick a song you dislike - you're pretty sure 'Think of Me Thinking of You' is Flppto's favorite song. You've heard him hum the melody often enough.

Almost certainly, if you were to ask the computer to pick your song, it would pick [your favorite song]. You've always liked [your favorite song], ever since the first time you heard it.

Sure, it might not be the most famous piece of Earth music, but you think [your favorite song] is definitely the best, and it doesn't bother you at all that this means you chose to prefer [your favorite song] over such other popular Earth songs as [not your favorite song] or the vastly overrated [not your favorite song either]. There's just something about [your favorite song] that speaks to you in a way no other song does.

You suppose that settles it. "I'm going to sing [your favorite song]," you tell Flppto and Rendoxoll.

"You Earthlings never fail to awe me," Flppto says. Apparently, he's already forgotten that only yesterday, he wasn't at all impressed by the Original Martian Settlement environment of your living sphere, claiming it to be very historically inaccurate.

"I hope it's short," Rendoxoll says. It's beginning to get on your nerves a little, if you're honest. Since Rendoxoll is your team leader, you feel it should be more supportive of what is, after all, as serious an assignment as that time you investigated the mysterious ruins on Planet A00, renamed the Planet of Doom after you and your team barely made it out alive - or your explorations of the underground oceans of Venus where you discovered an entirely new species of very tasty fish.

Sure, karaoke night might be less exciting and/or dangerous, but an assignment is an assignment, and you take all of your assignments very seriously. The Zondo Quest Group's work is too important not to.

Then you hear the opening of [your favorite song] and you decide to let it go: you're simply going to have fun singing [your favorite song] and Rendoxoll can think whatever it wants.

Flppto, meanwhile, has already begun humming along, clearly reading your mind again.

Under other circumstances, it might have bothered you a little, but right now, telepathy actually seems kind of cool.


End file.
